Unable to keep Us from Falling
by UncensoredPen.Island
Summary: I'm not human. I'm an animal. Not a cat, not a dog, but a rodent. A human turned rodent. And now I've wound up in the Naruto world. Some part of me was really wishing…hoping that this was just a hallucination and that I would blink and wake up from this strange dream, but not everything we wish for comes true.


It's strange waking up and feeling completely disoriented. My limbs didn't move properly, my head was buzzing, and my mouth felt extremely heavy. The funny side of this story though is that when I woke up, I wasn't where I thought I was, nor was I who I thought I was. No. I was different. Completely changed. How I could tell?

Well…

For starters I could smell scents that I knew I wouldn't be able to smell as a normal human being. On top of that my vision was not up to par. In fact my vision was quite terrible. Colors melded together to form odd chunky looking objects, and the chunky objects were extremely blurred. To say that I was scared would've been an understatement.

I was terrified beyond belief. My breathing slowly became labored, and my chest felt heavy as if gravity itself was playing a horrible joking and putting immense pressure on my chest. I knew I was laying up against a tree as I could feel the rough texture of the bark rubbing into my back. For some strange reason, the bark comforted me, and I tried to shift my body as slowly as I could without jarring myself unnecessarily. Slowly but surely my back was now fully pressed against the roots and I sighed. Just having to move myself took a lot out of me, but it calmed my breathing down.

I can't exactly remember how long I was resting there for, but I knew it had to have been an extended period of time as the sun was now setting.

It would've been a smart idea for me to have traveled through the day and then rest at night away from predators that might try to eat me, but getting used to being in this body was hard. My arms where shorter than a blade of grass, my eyes were on opposite sides of my head which took some getting used to, and my nose was picking up scents I didn't want smell, or rather me not know what I was smelling.

To be honest, I was just tired of this. Some part of me was really wishing…hoping that this was just a hallucination and that I would blink and my eyes would see nothing but miles and miles of sand dunes, or that I would wake up from a coma and be in the hospital with nothing but a white room and sterile smell to keep me company, but it wasn't going to happen.

This wasn't a dream at all. The grass felt all too real. Even the bark against my back felt realer than real itself. The ants crawling on the bark tickled my fur, and I _knew_ it was fur. Don't ask me how I know.

I just know that I have fur. What type of animal I was…well that escaped me completely? If I could just find a river, then this guessing game of "What I am?" could end quicker than a cat chasing a mouse.

Tentatively, I stretched out my hand, placing it on the grass slowly. I hadn't exactly figured out the limitations of this body yet, so I had to be cautious in everything I did. That didn't mean that I had to be overprotective of myself. It just meant that I had to be more careful.

As I started walking…or I guess you should say crawl (because at this rate I wouldn't get anywhere), I felt like I was waddling. Each foot I put in front of the other, and each hand I placed in front of the other had my entire body rocking back and forth like a boat. I couldn't help but giggle in my head as I began to pick up pace from a steady slow walk to a trot. The hair on top of my head was flying in every direction as I started swishing my head back and forth while slowly picking up pace.

For some reason this trot was highly entertaining, and I couldn't help but run in circles now, chasing the butterfly that happened to be flying past me. This odd purring noise that faintly resembled the sound of a dying walrus erupted from my throat as I chased the butterfly unto this dirt road.

My surroundings slowly disappeared as my only focus became that of chasing the butterfly. Of course the little fella' was being crafty and flying low to the ground to get my attention, but high enough that I couldn't swipe at it.

The tease.

My arms couldn't reach above my head, so I was reduced to jumping an inch of the ground and purring at the thing.

I swear if I had an outer body experience I would look at myself and say how utterly pathetic I looked. A little thing like me being entertained by something as simple as a butterfly. Just thinking about it had me shaking my head in disgust, but that was probably the human side of me talking.

The animal side of me was yelling for me to go faster and jump higher.

'Come on you can do it! Jump! Reach for the butterfly'! That was me trying to encourage myself to push myself more.

And if a dialogue was being thrown in here, you could only imagine the butterfly saying 'Ha ha ha, You can't catch me, I'm the butterfly man." Insert the rolling of the butterflies eyes and you have yourself a small play.

No matter how fun this was, there was always that one thing that decides to ruin everything,

That happened to be me and my stupid self running into something hard.

And when I mean hard, I mean stone cold metal hard.

I sniffled and tried not to cry from the impact, but something warm wrapped around my lower bell, causing me to stop mid sniffle. The sudden feeling of my stomach dropping and the ground no longer being in my vision had me squealing and thrashing in that warm hand. A face came into my vision and I could only twitch now as the person began to say calm soothing words to me.

"I'm sorry…shhhh shhhh. It's okay. There's nothing to be afraid of." My body was still as a rock as I stared at the person that had picked me up.

Now I had thought that I was going crazy, or was already half way there, when I woke up to be in the body of an animal. But now I knew I was bat shit bonkers.

How in the hell was Haku standing in front of me? Let alone holding me.

This was insane!

This was more than insane. This was downright ridiculous. I seriously had more than a few screws loose.

He started petting my head softly which to be honest melted me like butter, but I wouldn't let him know that. There's really nothing wrong with Haku, seeing as how he had meant well in protecting someone that was close to him. Haku shouldn't have been in the crossfire as he was naturally a good person, but he was just not in the correct profession. Well I mean correct side. Had he been working for Konoha ninja's he would've no doubt become an outstanding ninja, and many would've looked up to him. It was strange to be held gently by someone with the same hands that could kill in the blink of an eye.

Haku was gentle as he placed me on his shoulder, slightly nuzzling my fur. I purred loudly at the sudden tingly sensation creeping down my back. I could seriously get used to this though."I think I shall name you Mu." My response was to further curl into his shoulder, being careful not to dig my claws into his neck. I could only assume that my nails were really sharp as when he had placed me down on his shoulder he had slightly flinched.

There wasn't any time for me to make a decision of whether or not I should go with Haku. Common sense would've told me to have apologized my nibbling on his ear and then high-tailing it out of there. Why?

Because where Haku is, Zabuza most likely is lurking around, and I don't think he would appreciate an animal tagging along on his apprentice's shoulder.

Or maybe Zabuza could be the sweetest man on the face of the planet, but was just showing his "true colors" because of unavoidable circumstances. I mean the man was hired to do his job, regardless of the fact that he was a missing-nin. He could've been hired for mulching and Zabuza probably would've done it. Missing-nin's don't really have finances once they've been separated from their village unless on outside party hires them to do their dirty business, which happens to be most cases. Missing-nin title aside, he could just be an everyday normal person. Well as normal as a ninja can become.

I mean Zabuza must have had some type of heart considering the fact that he allowed Haku to stand by his side. That was him being considerate in his own way. It's just that other people may not look at it like that.

So sue me if I enjoyed riding on his shoulder all the way back to his hideout, which happened to be a small hut on the outskirts of the town.

How I knew it was the outskirts?

Well from the hut you could see The Land of Waves, or specifically, Tazuna's house which wasn't that far off.

A light bulb went off in my head as I now realized how _close _they really were to Team 7. Zabuza seriously must have been monitoring their progress and comparing it with his recovery, just so he could know when to strike. And it also explains why Haku found Naruto. It's funny how when you think about certain things in this series, there's always a connection somewhere.

Haku knocked on the hut four times, but paused between the second and third knock before entering. He must've been warning Zabuza that it was him and not some enemy.

"I have collected the herbs needed to help you recover." There wasn't a response, and I think that Haku knew that he wouldn't get any, seeing as he didn't walk into the next room to investigate the silence, but instead placed his basket of herbs on the small table.

A small sigh escaped his lips, and I could see days worth of restless nights nesting underneath his eyes. Was he really on edge about Zabuza being injured, or was he more concerned about being ambushed during his sensei's recovery time? Whatever the answer may be it still didn't sit well in my stomach. Here Haku is, doing everything he possibly can to please his sensei, and the most he's going to get out of it is his own death. Talk about signing up for a suicide mission.

Haku really didn't know what was going to happen to him, and for a small second I pitied him. But then the thought that he had chosen this path came to me and I quickly pushed away the pity. His choice. his decisions, whether the outcome be good or bad, he had to live with that.

His hands gently cupped me around the stomach for support as he took me off of his shoulder and placed me on the table. He gave me a strained smile and placed a finger to his lips in a "shh"ing motion. "I shall get you some food, ne." And with that he turned around to head out the door, but not before giving me one last look and a small wink.

The door was shut.

And I became utterly frightened.

What if Zabuza miraculously recovered at that very moment and came into the kitchen to get something to drink and then spot me, a nasty rodent on the table? He would be utterly furious, and try to maim me as quick as possible.

Now putting killer Zabuza aside, I had discovered that I was some type of rodent as there was a glass of water on the table and I could make out myself through the reflection. I was either a gerbil, or guinea pig, I couldn't tell which one though. Funny thing was that I had the weirdest coat of fur ever.

I was a caramel brown, but around my left eye I had a huge black patch with little white hairs sticking out. I was seriously the weirdest looking rodent ever. Now if Zabuza saw this resting on his table, then I would definitely be minced meat.

I was seriously screwed if Haku didn't come back soon.


End file.
